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I hope all my favourite people who are at Nattercon this weekend are having a wonderful time. I'm pissed off that I can't be there, but there's only so much travelling one can do with a mortgage and a slightly unsteady-at-the-moment household income (although work finally organised a large reimbursement this week that allowed me to pay off all my credit cards, so yay! for that and I can start planning for next year).

In other news, I have 9 stitches in my neck, courtesy of the skin cancer clinic down in Penrith. I've had a lump on my neck for a while, but in typical fashion I ignored it until the bloke threw me in a headlock and forced me to make an appointment with the clinic. Turned out to be a BCC. Yesterday morning I had it chopped out under local anaesthetic, which worked fine, but the doc was being very careful because of the number of blood vessels in the area. So instead of a quick slice or two it was more than 5 minutes of feeling him tugging at "something" before the narsty bit went into the dish and he stitched me up.

I wasn't supposed to drive afterwards, because I'd been advised to restrict neck movement as much as possible, and I'd originally planned to take a taxi from Penrith to home. But the way the taxi services work around here meant I would have had to pay double for every kilometre past the City of Sydney limits (the Sydney taxis aren't allowed to poach calls from the Blue Mountains, so they charge for the return kilometres as well). Instead, I took my car to Glenbrook station and a return train to Penrith and back, then I drove home using side streets with almost no traffic where I either didn't have to turn my head or I could take my time and twist my body around. Only a couple of kms anyway.

Of course the local wore off a couple of hours later so I was uncomfortable for most of yesterday afternoon. Now I just have to be mindful of how I move (with normal movement the head leads the body and I knew I'd have to adapt – what I'd forgotten is how tiring it is to have to take such active control over what I do physically!).

I have to go back to the clinic in a week's time to get the stitches out and find out whether the pathologist thinks it's all been got.

B and I went with some friends to see Ironman last Saturday night. I was never a fan of that particular comic, but I read The Avengers in the late 80's so I knew the history. I really enjoyed the movie. I thought they did a good job of shifting the origin story from Vietnam to Afghanistan and the special effects and comic book physics were just right. Robert Downey Jnr was great, and I loved Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard (OK, I have always been a Jim Rhodes fan). I even liked Gwyneth Paltrow for the first time since Shakespeare in Love.

Afterwards we went to "The Emu's Flute" for dinner. It's a coffee house come restaurant at Emu Plains (duh). It had a statue of a street flute player inside the door, which was a relief because I couldn't imagine another connection between emus and flutes. I ate a beautifully tender filet mignon and we talked a lot.

I've also been watching a few TV shows recently:-Farscape - When the show first aired we watched the pilot and a couple of episodes but gave up early because the plots seemed so derivative of everything that had 'gone before'. Then a friend lent us three seasons on tape so we had to watch, and by the end of season one we were hooked. The show still had its flaws – in the early seasons any drinking game based on Pilot saying that Moya was worried or afraid would have wound up with everyone legless before the credits rolled – but by the end it reached wonderful heights of imagination, drama and total crack, sometimes simultaneously. I adore Ben Browder and Claudia Black in their roles, and Gigi Edgley as Chiana is a joy to watch (moves reminiscent of Australian aboriginal dancers in her performance).

New TricksSeasoned actors. Good plots. Nice mix of humour and drama. Dennis Waterman. 'Nuf said - I love it. Up to season two ATM.

PrimevalThe title always seems wrong – I need that conjoined ae, dammit! Anyway, lukadreaming put me onto this one. I have to watch it without the bloke, because he's decided it's too much like Torchwood, special effects and interpersonal dramas as a replacement for substance, but I don't quite agree. I've only watched season one so far. Yes, it's a bit 'monster of the week'-ish and there's little character development or even backstory apart from a couple of the leads. But there are hints of a darker storyline to come, and it's watchable. Especially Stephenwait, I didn't say that…

The EagleI caught an episode on Australian SBS last year. The relationship between Hallgrim and Nazim intrigued me (yes, my slash-sensors went off, big time) and, although the episode itself had a bad ending, I got the first series on DVD. So far, so good. Hallgrim, Nazim and Ditte are my favourites. I could do with fewer of Hallgrim's "tortured past" flashbacks, though.